Frequently asked questions
Getting Started / Overview
Allspice adds premium cooking tools directly to your recipe site, including recipe search, guided cooking, saved recipes, grocery lists, pantry tools, meal planning, and AI assistance. Allspice was shaped by the suggestions of over 100 different recipe publishers.
The goal is to give readers the modern cooking experience they expect while keeping them engaged with your content and your site.
Allspice is built for food publishers, especially recipe bloggers and content creators who want to:
- deliver a better reader experience
- increase session time and returning visitors
- unlock new revenue through subscriptions + commerce
Readers get the tools they already use elsewhere - recipe saving, meal planning, grocery lists, pantry tracking, AI help - directly on your site and tied to your content.
Publishers get a more interactive reader experience that can increase engagement, keep readers on recipe pages longer, and make the site feel more useful during cooking, planning, and shopping. Maximizing returning visits has become increasingly important as traffic has become more variable.
Allspice also gives publishers controls for placement, styling, analytics, and future monetization features such as premium products, grocery commerce, and in-widget advertising.
Yes. We can share live examples so you can see the reader experience on desktop and mobile.
Because each publisher can configure Allspice differently, examples may vary by button placement, styling, enabled features, and ad setup.
Some platforms focus primarily on shoppable recipe links, sponsored campaigns, affiliate commerce, creator monetization, or sending users into a separate destination.
Allspice is different because it is built as an on-site cooking layer for publishers. The experience lives on your site and is designed to support the ad-supported recipe page model while adding search, saving, guided cooking, grocery lists, meal planning, memberships, and optional AI tools.
The goal is to keep more of the reader's cooking workflow connected to the publisher's own content, rather than treating the recipe page only as a place to send traffic elsewhere.
Yes. We're focused on the U.S. first, but the platform is designed for global publishers.
Allspice periodically offers early adopter, partner, or event-specific discounts.
Annual billing also provides savings compared with monthly billing. Any available discount code or offer will be shown during signup or shared directly by the Allspice team.
Platform Support
Right now, Allspice primarily supports WordPress publishers through our WordPress plugin.
We are also expanding support for non-WordPress publishers through script-based integrations. If your site is not on WordPress, reach out and we can confirm whether your setup is supported.
Not yet - but it's coming soon.
In the meantime, creators will be able to use a "link in bio" flow that opens an Allspice-hosted experience with the same tools plus a searchable library of their recipes.
Soon, yes. Social-first creators will be able to publish recipes via caption content or link-based import and offer a full Allspice recipe experience to their audience.
Installation & Setup
Allspice is installed as a WordPress plugin and automatically injects the Allspice widget/buttons on supported recipe posts.
Yes - recipes are auto-detected.
We strongly prefer publishers using JSON-LD recipe structured data, since that ensures the best extraction and the best user experience.
Allspice appears on eligible recipe posts that can be parsed successfully and meet the minimum content requirements for a usable recipe experience, including at least one ingredient and sufficient recipe structure.
Yes. Allspice can be configured so it does not have to appear everywhere at once. Exact controls may depend on your WordPress setup, categories, tags, and how your recipes are structured.
Yes. No-indexed posts are generally excluded from Allspice search results, and publishers can also exclude specific tags. This is useful for old content, private content, roundup pages, non-recipe posts, or sections you do not want included in the recipe search experience.
Yes. You can place buttons anywhere you want - for example:
- a "Search recipes" button in your header
- a "Save to Allspice" button in a newsletter section
- a homepage call-to-action
Yes. You can make any element trigger an Allspice action by applying a class we provide, so your site can look 100% custom.
Yes. You can enable/disable specific buttons and choose between:
- premade buttons (fastest)
- fully custom buttons (most control)
Yes. Publishers can customize the styling and white-label the widget. We add additional customization options by request.
Yes. Publishers can choose from multiple implementation options, including the original overlay, a lighter floating widget, inline blocks inside posts, and standalone page templates for search and other features. This allows publishers to choose the configuration that best fits their site layout, reader experience, and monetization setup.
We support public dev environments.
Because Allspice needs to crawl/scrape and access public pages (like sitemaps), private staging environments may not work unless publicly accessible.
If your domain's DNS is managed by Cloudflare, you should add the necessary TXT record directly within your Cloudflare DNS settings.
In some cases, publishers may need to allowlist the Allspice crawler in their firewall, security plugin, CDN, bot-protection service, or hosting configuration.
If recipe crawling or setup is blocked, allowlisting Allspice crawler traffic (including IP 34.171.197.31 where applicable) can resolve access issues.
Adding team members provides a secure way to collaborate on Allspice setup and design without sharing login credentials. It's useful for involving technical or design staff, especially when implementing multiple custom buttons, and ensures that different team members can manage specific aspects of the integration.
Available roles and permissions are shown in the Partner Portal when you invite a teammate.
Migration & Existing Tools
For food publishers, Allspice is a much more comprehensive product than Slickstream.
Slickstream is primarily a content discovery and engagement layer: site search, recommendations, saved content, and prompts that help readers browse more posts.
Allspice includes those core discovery features, but they are only the starting point. Allspice is built around the full recipe workflow: recipe search, recommendations, saving, recipe questions, substitutions, adaptations, grocery lists, guided cooking, meal planning, memberships, premium recipes, and return visits across a reader's cooking journey.
In other words, Allspice does the core discovery work publishers expect, then adds the cooking-specific functionality that generic engagement tools do not provide.
Slickstream helps readers find content. Allspice helps readers find, use, save, shop, cook, plan, and return to recipe content.
Grow is generally focused on helping publishers build reader relationships through engagement, identity, email capture, and audience tools.
Allspice is focused specifically on the recipe and cooking experience. It gives food publishers tools for recipe search, saving, grocery lists, guided cooking, meal planning, memberships, premium recipes, and optional AI assistance directly around their content.
For food publishers, Allspice is meant to make the recipe page more useful, interactive, and actionable while keeping the reader connected to the publisher's site.
Not necessarily. Allspice can work alongside existing publisher tools, depending on the site's setup and goals.
Some publishers use Allspice as a full cooking layer across search, saving, grocery lists, guided cooking, meal planning, and memberships. Others use a more focused configuration, such as recipe search, inline recipe tools, premium recipe support, or standalone pages.
The right setup depends on the publisher's site, ad strategy, existing tools, and reader experience.
We are working on migration paths where possible for publishers who already have saved recipe users through other systems. What is possible depends on the platform, available export options, user permissions, and privacy requirements. If migration matters for your site, we can review the options during onboarding.
Yes. Allspice supports integrations with common email platforms, including Kit, Mailchimp, MailerLite, and Flodesk. If you use a different email provider, let us know. In many cases, we can quickly add support or recommend the best integration path.
Performance, Ads, and Compatibility
Allspice is designed to load asynchronously and minimize impact on page performance. The current implementation supports lightweight loading patterns and multiple placement options so publishers can choose the setup that works best for their site.
As with any third-party script, actual performance can vary by theme, caching setup, optimization plugin, ad stack, and implementation choices. We monitor compatibility and can help troubleshoot if a site-specific configuration creates issues.
Yes, but caching/optimization plugins can sometimes interfere with scripts.
If needed, we'll guide you on small WP Rocket adjustments to ensure everything runs perfectly.
Allspice is designed to work alongside existing ad providers and common site setups.
Because ad layouts vary by provider and publisher, we continue to improve compatibility with sticky ads, video players, footer ads, in-content ads, and other common placements.
Allspice is designed to coexist with publisher ad stacks and does not replace a publisher's ad provider. Because ad layouts vary by provider and site, Allspice supports multiple implementation options, including the original overlay, a lighter floating widget, inline post placement, and standalone page templates.
For compatibility, Allspice can expose open and closed lifecycle events so a publisher implementation or ad provider can respond appropriately when the Allspice experience is opened or closed.
Yes. Allspice is designed to preserve publisher monetization rather than replace it.
Depending on your ad provider and configuration, ads may continue to show through placements such as footer ads, video players, floating units, or inline placements within the Allspice experience. Available placements can vary by site and ad provider.
Cook Mode is designed to increase engaged time while still supporting publisher monetization.
Ad behavior depends on your provider and configuration. Allspice can support high-value placements such as footer ads, video players, floating placements, and inline ads where supported. We recommend reviewing the setup during onboarding so the experience works well for both readers and revenue.
The Reader Experience
No. Allspice works directly on your site.
Users can optionally use the Allspice app/website later as their "home base" to manage saved recipes across multiple sites.
Allspice is built mobile-first because most recipe traffic happens on phones. The mobile experience is designed to be compact, easy to open and close, and useful while cooking. Publishers can also choose button placements and configurations that fit their site layout.
Yes. Users can use Allspice anonymously at first, but they'll eventually be prompted to create an account so their data stays safely saved and synced.
Readers can use many Allspice features anonymously at first, so they do not need to create an account immediately. If they want to save recipes, sync grocery lists, use pantry tools across devices, or keep their preferences long term, they can create an Allspice account. That account follows them across participating Allspice sites, so they are not creating a separate account for every publisher.
Their saved recipes, grocery lists, pantry data, and preferences can sync across:
- devices
- Allspice website
- Allspice app
Yes. Users can share grocery lists and pantries with other users (great for families, roommates, etc).
No. On your site, Allspice is designed to search and recommend recipes from your domain only. That applies to recipe search, AI-powered recipe search, and ingredient-based discovery. Cross-site recipe discovery is only planned for opt-in publisher groups or other experiences controlled by participating publishers.
No. Allspice is designed to keep the reader experience on your site. The AI assistant and cooking tools are built into the Allspice experience so readers can ask questions, cook, save, plan, and shop without needing to copy your recipe into a separate AI tool.
Yes - this is planned via Publisher Groups:
- If you own multiple sites, users can search across all of them
- If you partner with other creators, you can create a shared group to cross-promote recipes
(Opt-in and controlled by publishers.)
Cook Mode (and why it matters)
Cook Mode is a cleaner, step-by-step cooking experience that turns your recipe into something users can actually cook from, without clutter.
Cook Mode can include:
- step-by-step instructions
- images per step (when available)
- per-step ingredients
- timers and pacing controls (configurable)
Cook Mode can support ads, but the best setup depends on your ad provider, site layout, and revenue strategy. Allspice is designed to preserve key monetization placements where possible, and publishers can decide whether Cook Mode fits their site strategy.
Because it gives users a reason to stay on your page while they cook - rather than copying/pasting into another app or leaving for a tool like ChatGPT.
AI Assistant / Smart Features
Allspice includes an AI assistant that can answer questions and help users take actions (depending on what's enabled), like:
- understanding a recipe
- adapting portions
- planning meals
- building grocery lists
Allspice combines recipe data, ingredient intelligence, and site-specific context to make the experience more relevant to each publisher. For niche sites, such as gluten-free, vegan, keto, allergy-friendly, or regional cuisine sites, we can review how your recipes are parsed and improve how important ingredients, substitutions, and terminology are handled over time.
Free readers currently receive 25 open-ended AI chat messages per month. This limit applies only to conversational AI chat, not to the full Allspice widget experience. Readers can still use recipe search, AI-powered recipe search results, guided cooking, saved recipes, and grocery list functionality for free.
If a reader reaches the monthly AI chat limit, they may be prompted to upgrade to Allspice Premium for additional open-ended chat usage. Once payouts are live, participating publishers will receive 25% of net Allspice Premium subscription revenue from attributed users, including users who originally created their Allspice account through the publisher’s site and later subscribe in the Allspice app.
Allspice uses proprietary food + ingredient data to:
- consolidate ingredients intelligently
- reduce duplicates across recipes
- help users shop cost-effectively
This is a huge upgrade over basic checklist-style grocery apps.
On your site, ingredient-based recipe results come from your own recipes. Allspice is designed to help readers discover more of your content, not send them to other publishers' recipes.
Yes. Users can edit recipes and save personal versions, so the recipe evolves with them.
Yes - users can create meal plans, and we'll continue expanding this feature over time (including free or paid meal plan support).
Yes - users can track pantry items and keep grocery lists connected to what they already have.
Monetization & Revenue Share
Allspice is designed to improve user experience, increase engagement, and keep users on your site longer during cooking and planning.
We are actively building additional monetization layers, including:
- grocery affiliate commerce
- in-widget advertising
- premium user experiences
These will be introduced over time and designed to complement existing publisher revenue streams.
Revenue sharing is being added alongside our premium meal planning and payout infrastructure.
Participating publishers are expected to receive 25% of net Allspice Premium subscription revenue from attributed users. Publishers will also be able to receive 90% of net revenue from premium products they create through Allspice, such as premium meal plans, recipes, or collections based on their own content. Publishers will also receive 100% of grocery delivery affiliate revenue.
Yes.
We are actively developing monetization features such as:
- grocery affiliate integrations
- in-widget advertising
- optional premium user experiences
These will be designed to align with publisher incentives and integrate cleanly with existing ad setups.
Allspice is a premium product for publishers.
Pricing reflects the infrastructure, ongoing development, and support required to deliver a high-performance on-page experience across a wide range of sites and configurations.
Allspice pricing is generally based on your site's typical traffic level, not a single unusual spike. If your traffic is seasonal or one month is unusually high, we can review the broader pattern during onboarding so your plan reflects the real size of your site.
Most of the Allspice widget experience is free for readers, including recipe search, AI-powered recipe search results, guided cooking, saved recipes, and grocery list functionality.
Open-ended AI chat has a free monthly limit because it has ongoing infrastructure costs. This 25-message free limit resets each month. Readers who want additional AI chat usage may upgrade to Allspice Premium.
Allspice provides:
- Interactive cooking experiences (guided cooking, chat, and planning tools)
- Increased session time and deeper user engagement
- Advanced UI components designed for recipe pages
- Publisher controls for customization and placement
- Ongoing improvements to performance, compatibility, and reliability
Allspice is designed to work alongside existing ad providers and publisher monetization setups. Publishers can choose from multiple implementation options, including the original overlay, a lighter floating widget, inline placement, and standalone page templates, depending on their site layout and ad strategy.
As with any reader-facing engagement tool, the best configuration can vary by site, theme, ad provider, and placement setup. Allspice is built to minimize disruption, preserve key ad placements where possible, and support compatibility work with ad providers when needed.
Analytics & Publisher Tools
Yes. Publishers get a dashboard to track usage and manage their integration.
Daily.
Right now the dashboard includes performance around:
- recipes
- usage
- ingredients
Soon it will also include:
- revenue analytics
- deeper audience insights (aggregated + anonymized)
No. Publisher analytics are anonymized and aggregated, and subject to Allspice terms.
Over time, we'll add richer insights (example: "what % of your audience prefers gluten-free"), while maintaining privacy protection.
No. The standard Allspice implementation does not provide publishers or third parties with raw user data, user IDs, credentials, personal identifiers, or individual-level Allspice User data by default.
Publisher analytics are aggregated and anonymized. Any limited sharing of Personal Data with a publisher, such as an email address, must be user-initiated, purpose-limited, revocable, and is not the default behavior.
Allspice also does not use publisher recipe content to train machine learning or AI models without the publisher's prior written approval.
Compliance, Reliability, and Support
Allspice is designed with privacy and compliance in mind, including support for CCPA-style requirements.
GDPR and UK GDPR readiness are in progress. We are continuing to update our policies, data handling practices, and publisher documentation as those requirements are finalized. If your site has specific legal or compliance requirements, contact us and we can provide more detail for your legal team.
You should review your own privacy policy and legal requirements before enabling any third-party service.
Many publishers already have privacy policy language covering embedded tools, analytics, user accounts, and third-party services. For transparency, some publishers choose to mention Allspice as a third-party tool used to enhance recipe browsing, saving, cooking, grocery list, and meal planning experiences.
Suggested language:
"We use third-party tools, including Allspice, to enhance recipe browsing and cooking experiences. If you choose to interact with these tools, such as by creating an account or saving recipes, information may be collected and processed by those services in accordance with their own privacy policies."
Because demand is high, publishers typically join through a waitlist. Setup is simple and we can guide you, or you can work with one of our approved integration partners.
After you create an account, you can start the setup process in the Partner Portal and schedule an intro or onboarding call. If you joined through a partner, event, or discount code, we can help make sure the right offer is applied to your account.
Allspice is built and monitored as production infrastructure. Formal uptime commitments, if any, are governed by the applicable agreement for your account. Availability reports are available at https://allspicelabs.com/status/.
Yes. Allspice can be configured around eligible recipe posts, templates, categories, tags, and other setup rules depending on your site. Allspice appears on eligible recipe posts that can be parsed successfully and meet the minimum content requirements for a usable recipe experience, including at least one ingredient and sufficient recipe structure. We can also help configure exclusions or a more selective rollout during onboarding.
Membership platforms like Grocers List, Memberful, and similar tools can help creators sell access, manage subscriptions, or gate premium content.
Allspice can support memberships too, but it is built more deeply around the recipe experience. Publishers can connect memberships to premium recipes, recipe cards, meal plans, grocery lists, guided cooking, recipe search, and other cooking-specific features.
That means a membership can become more than a locked page or checkout flow. It can become an integrated cooking product that gives readers more value from the publisher's recipes.
Allspice supports most membership or exclusive recipe strategies, but the best setup depends on how your gated content is structured. During onboarding, we can review whether certain recipes should be included, excluded, or handled separately so private or member-only content is not exposed unintentionally.
We're actively building:
- support for non-WordPress publishers
- paywalled recipe support
- more advanced analytics + revenue reporting
- improved ad options
- upgraded meal plan features
- social creator support
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